1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to calls over a switched telephone network, and, more particularly, to interaction between the switched telephone network and a telecommunication application server of an enterprise to which the call is directed.
2. Related Art
Herein, reference is made to “telecommunications equipment” or “telecommunications switching equipment.” It should be understood that this term is intended to include equipment in the nature of Internet protocol network equipment. Reference is also made herein to a “telecommunications service provider,” or simply a “service provider.” It should be understood that either term is intended to refer to a provider of telecommunications or Internet service.
In a conventional arrangement, a business enterprise is a customer of a service provider and the enterprise has telecommunications switching equipment such as a private branch exchange (“PBX”) on its premises and this customer premise switching equipment is connected to the service provider's switching equipment, typically located in a central office remote from the customer's premises. In some circumstances this PBX equipment, though dedicated to the business enterprise, is nevertheless located in the central office, or at least somewhere other than the customer premises. It should be understood that herein the term “customer switching equipment” is used to refer to telecommunications switching equipment dedicated to an enterprise regardless of whether the equipment is located on the customer premises or not and regardless of whether the equipment is a PBX by all definitions. The service provider switching equipment, i.e., telecommunications service provider network (“TSPN”), is part of the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”).
According to this conventional arrangement, a call coming into the enterprise is “completed” from the standpoint of the central office equipment, i.e., with respect to the TSPN, as soon as the call is handed off to the customer switching equipment even though the call has not yet been routed all the way through the customer switching equipment and to a desk set or the like (“terminal equipment”) of a callee in the enterprise. Terminal equipment includes, but is not limited to, black phones, mobile phones, IP phone and soft phones.
A “call center” is another well-known arrangement in which the customer equipment, typically in connection with an enterprise network (which may include a server, or a network of servers or of servers and clients) manages incoming calls in a variety of aspects. For example, it is well known for an incoming call to complete at the call center and then for the call center's server to serve up information for display on a client computer system that is sitting in front of a service representative. This may even be done in a fashion according to which the information is displayed on the client system at about the same time that the call center customer switching equipment delivers the incoming call to the service representative's terminal equipment.
It should be appreciated that while the functionality provided by a call center is desirable, nevertheless its complexity and its specialized equipment are not desirable. Therefore a need exists for improvements in the apparatus and processes by which telecommunications calls are handled, and particularly in the interaction between a TSPN and enterprise network.